WINNSBORO — Fairfield Behavioral Health Services in partnership with Fairfield Community Health Partners sponsored their third in a series of faith based tobacco education trainings on Jan. 26.
The training took place at Christ Central Community Center in Winnsboro with eight churches in attendance. The group spent the morning learning about the health risks associated with smoking as well as second-hand and third-hand smoking.
Cheryl Goodwin, special services coordinator for Fairfield Behavioral Health Services, presented to the group the top reason why smoking was bad not only for smokers, but for everyone around them.
“About every seven seconds somewhere in the world a person dies from smoking,” Goodwin said. “Tobacco products are the only legal consumer products that are harmful when used exactly as the manufacturer intended, about 443,000 people die from smoking-related illnesses in the U.S. every year, more than alcohol, car crashes, homicides, illicit drug use and risky sexual behavior, and more than 600 of them will die prematurely because of smoking.”
The group left with material they will need to host a workshop in their local communities. Each church was given two yard signs that said, “Not On These Ground,” a notebook with training information and tobacco facts, and smoke free pledges that residents can sign to pledge to keep their homes smoke free.
Contact Goodwin at cgoodwin@fairfieldbhs.org, P.O. Box 388 Winnsboro, SC 29180 or call 635-2335, ext. 33, for more information on the program or if your church would like to get involved.
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